A Walk in the Clouds: Part II

We woke up at 10:30 the next morning and got back on the trail by 11:00.

Lucky for us, we were blessed with mild temperatures and no rain during the whole trip. Estimates placed the time to reach the summit around 6 hours, and as you worked your way up the trail there were multiple mountain huts selling food & drinks, with some offering sleep lodgings.
As we continued to scale the mountainside, we eventually crossed paths with an Australian couple in their mid forties. We ended up climbing about half of the mountain together and the guy, Andy, was a retired golf pro and big fan of hiking. He told us some great stories about life in Australia and some of his past trips.

Along the path they had a number of sign posts warning you: "Watch out for Falling Rocks", "Don't Throw any Stones" and my favorite "Watch your Step"...as if we didn't already know.

(this one is for you blair)

So we climbed higher and higher, but unfortunately Kevin wasn't able to keep the pace steady so we had to go on ahead without him. Three men left, undaunted, we were getting close...

...and very hungry, so we stopped to grab some food at somewhat inflated prices, due to the difficulty in getting supplies up the mountain.

Here are a few other pictures at various stations throughout the climb up.

caught in the middle of a cloud
all bundled up
Not on top yet, but above the clouds

After about 5 hours of hard work and strenuous climbing we had reached the summit. It was similar to torture near the top when we were only about 60 feet from the top, since the air was so thin that after every 30 seconds of climbing my heart was racing and it became very hard to breathe. It was a great feeling knowing that we had accomplished what we set out to do and would probably never do again.

Memorial Stone at the entrance to the top of the crater.
highest point of the mountain, took another 30 minutes of walking around the crater to get to.
views from the top

There is an old saying in Japan: "It is a fool who never climbs Mt. Fuji, and a fool who climbs it twice." Unfortunately, we realized why they say it on the way down.... Understandably, we were all very tired from the 5 + hour climb up we had just finished, but since we wanted to get back that night, we didn't have any time to rest up and prepare for the trip down. The trail down proved to be extremely steep with unsure footing for most of it. For 2 1/2 hours we had to focus solely on not slipping and twisting an ankle.
beginning of the descending trail

One part I did enjoyed occurred as we neared the 5th station road exit. Since we were climbing down in the evening, there were a large amount of people going up in hopes of reaching the summit for the sunrise. As we passed more and more Japanese people, I began to call out "Yarennoka!" (Can't You Do it?) which was received well with laughs and answers of "hai", or yes.

The absolute low point of the trip came once we were taking the train back into Tokyo. Between Fuji and greater Tokyo there was a transfer station between the two called Otsuki. By the time we made it into Otsuki it was 11:00 PM and there were no trains running until the next day at 5 AM. So after a long overdue & very late dinner we went to the only hotel in Otsuki. The owner took an odd look at us and told Kevin in Japanese that there "was no room left in the hotel", which was an improbable story. So we had no other option than just sitting near the road at the station and waiting it out. We were all so exhausted from climbing that we fell asleep like a bunch of homeless people (we weren't the only ones, about 10 or so Japanese spent the night doing the same thing). There are no pictures to represent this point of the trip because it was one part I'd rather forget.

Overall, great trip & unbelievable experience!